Background...

It has taken dedication to keep up with Spider-Man: The Manga.
Originally
on a biweekly schedule, the series has disappeared for months at a time as it
has gone through what I assume to be its death-throes. Halfway through this
story of the evil Spidey, a drought of over two months occurred. Then two
issues
showed up together, on the same day. (Those two issues also showed up with the
same cover, depicting artwork not found in the interior; issue #29's cover was
more of a close-up but still the same illustration. Both covers offer the
come-on to "Win this Joe Madeira artwork". Desperate times make for desperate
measures though I would think, if they really wanted to sell copies, they would
have tried a slogan like, "Not really Spider-Man but no Aunt May, no
Gathering of Five, no Howard Mackie in any issue!" or "It isn't any less Spidey
than Chapter One, people!")

Ah well, it's probably all moot now. After another wait of a few months, issue
#30 finally appeared (and then #31 a week later) but the series is clearly on
its last legs. (Marvel stopped soliciting for it in Previews magazine
with issue #37.) So, how's it going out? With a bang or a whimper? Read on.

There has been a terrible accident. A train has derailed resulting in hundreds
of casualties, people badly in need of medical attention. One young man is
dying. He has been brought to surgery but nothing can be done without blood
transfusions. Unfortunately, the man has AB blood and there isn't enough on
hand
to help. But then, another young man steps forward and tells the doctors that
he
is also type AB. The doctors confirm it but have no time to check for any other
peculiarities of the donor's blood. So Yu Kormori, the Amazing Manga Spider-Man
donates his blood, rife with his spider-abilities, to the dying young man.
There
is a wonderful full-page illo of a dozen images of Spidey's masked face
swirling
in a fog above Yu's head that conveys this. In fact, the entire blood
transfusion sequence is more compelling than anything that is going on these
days in the regular Spider-books. But I digress.

Two days later an attractive young woman comes to visit Yu at home. She
introduces herself as Yukiko Kitano, the sister of the man who received the
transfusion. The patient is making a miraculous recovery, much to the surprise
of his doctors. With all the people who died in the train wreck, Yukiko wants
Yu
to know that he saved her brothers' life and that her grateful brother would
like to meet him. Yu is immediately smitten by Yukiko who reminds him of Rumi
"who passed away". (Rumi passed away? When did that happen?)

Yu goes to visit Mitsuo in the hospital. The patient turns out to be a reckless
young man who doesn't think twice about kicking three admiring girls out of his
room, smoking in the hospital, and embarassing his sister by telling Yu in
Yukiko's presence that "my sister told me you were handsome. I see it's true".
Yu gets a bad feeling about his act of kindness.

Two days later (and only five days since the accident) Mitsuo is out of the
hospital and driving around in a sleek-looking car. He offers Yu a ride, then
tells him he borrowed the car from a girl-friend of his. "She's ugly but her
family is loaded", Mitsuo says. "She wanted to give me a get-well present. It
sounded good to me, so I took it. I kicked the girl out and took the car." Yu's
expressions of sympathy for the girl don't faze Mitsuo at all.

Mitsuo drives to downtown Tokyo. He takes Yu to a bar where he picks up two
girls. But out in the parking lot, four men wait for Mitsuo. They have been
brought there by the girl who owns the car. The men knock Mitsuo down with a
few
punches, bloodying his nose and mouth. Then the young woman steps in, saying "I
can't believe you took my car and picked up other girls!" A defiant Mitsuo
spits
blood on the hood of the car and says, "But I didn't want to drive a nice car
like this with an ugly woman like you. It'd be a shame if I wasn't with a
beautiful girl." The young woman throws her purse so that it strikes Mitsuo in
the head and orders her thugs to "Beat him!!"

Overall Rating...

This is a novel story line that surprisingly Marvel U.S. has never used.
That's
got to be worth something. Like, four webs.

Footnote...

A sidenote here: The story is technically flawed. If a man has type AB blood
(specifically AB+) they have the rarest of all blood types, but are the
universal RECEIVER of blood. That means, they could get a transfusion from
ANYBODY. If they had Type O, they would need another Type O person to give
blood to them. But, there are usually plenty Type O individuals. -Mike Fichera

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